The Citrus Academy is tasked with addressing the challenges of – amongst others – scarce and critical skills supply, employment equity and transformation in the Southern African citrus industry. One of the ways in which we do this is by creating and maintaining a steady flow of educated and qualified young people into the industry; young people who are also excited about the industry and who are looking to forge long and happy careers in it.

Through the general section of the Bursary Fund – which we refer to as Tertiary Education Support – we award bursaries to students who are enrolled in post-school education at registered tertiary education institutions in South Africa, and who are studying in fields related to citrus production and research, such as Plant Production, Crop Production, Plant Pathology, Horticulture, Soil Science, Entomology, Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Management.

Through the BEE Bursary Support section we assist BEE citrus enterprises to develop their internal capacity by providing financial support to persons related to the enterprise to access quality formal education.

History of the Citrus Academy Bursary Fund

The Citrus Academy Bursary Fund was established in its current form in 2006. Since its establishment it has grown in both value and student numbers to where it is now one of the largest private bursary funds in the primary sector, and by far the largest in primary agriculture.

We have also had tremendous success in terms of student performance, with more than 95% of our students successfully completing their courses. Many of our students were productively integrated into the citrus industry at various levels, from production personnel to technical managers and quality control auditors.

In 2011 we produced a report on the first five years of the Bursary Fund, which you can read and / or download in e-book format by clicking here.

Funding

The administration of the Bursary Fund is paid for by the service fee which we receive from the Citrus Growers Association. Funding for bursaries and associated programmes are sought from donors. The main contributors to the Bursary Fund are the Citrus Industry Trust and the AgriSETA.

Vocational Learning

We aim to put young people in to the citrus industry who are not only well qualified, but who also has a sound understanding of the industry and the working environment.

To this end, we provide various vocational learning opportunities to all Bursary Fund beneficiaries. This includes an internship, graduate placement and holiday work programme (collectively referred to asWorkplace Learning), the Industry Exposure programme, and the Ready-Steady-Work programme. For more information on these programmes and on how to access these benefits, please use the links above or on the Bursary Fund menu.

APPLY HERE